You have no right to state workers' numbers

Court rules some public employees' office phones and emails are personal

May 04, 2013|Paul Muschick | The Watchdog

If you were ever shot down asking a pretty girl for her phone number, you're not alone. Trust me, they don't spill their digits to everyone who asks.

I bet few people would confuse state bureaucrats for beauty queens, but it's not easy getting their phone numbers, either.

A state court recently said Pennsylvania government offices don't have to provide the public with all of the phone numbers and email addresses assigned to their employees.

State lawyers convinced Commonwealth Court that some numbers and email addresses don't have to be disclosed because they are "personal." It doesn't matter if they're paid for with the public's money and are used — in theory, at least — to conduct the public's business.

That's like saying "my" desk at The Morning Call is personal property. Sure, I call it mine. Few others would want it unless they like cookie crumbs, dust bunnies and paper piles. But I don't own my desk. My employer does. And employers that are governments are obligated to provide information to the people who pay their salaries.

Commonwealth Court didn't rule that all government numbers and email addresses can be kept secret. That would be absurd, even by Harrisburg standards. But the court said numbers and email addresses assigned for use by specific employees are considered "personal" and exempt from disclosure under the state's Right-to-Know Law.

If you've ever talked to a state bureaucrat and gotten the vibe they really didn't want to hear from you, maybe this is evidence that's true.

The court rulings a few weeks ago stem from public records requests filed last year by two Bucks County community activists, Daniel Mohn and Andy Raffle, both from the Yardley area.

Mohn wanted "all agency-issued email addresses assigned for governmental work use" for the lieutenant governor and two Board of Pardons employees. He also asked for "all agency-issued telephone numbers assigned for governmental work use" for an employee in the lieutenant governor's office.

The state provided numbers for the governor's employees but they appear to be main office numbers, as a total of nine different numbers were provided for 61 employees. It provided a general email address for the lieutenant governor's office, OfficeoftheLieutenantGovernor@pa.gov.

The governor and lieutenant governor's offices refused to provide additional email addresses or phone numbers, such as direct-dial numbers and wireless numbers and secondary email addresses, saying they are considered "personal" and could be withheld, a decision later upheld by Commonwealth Court.

That's not reassuring for anyone seeking to reach the government to get help.

Without the option to contact a government employee directly, you're stuck dialing into main office numbers and emailing into vast in-boxes, where your inquiries can be screened and may never reach their intended destination. I'm not naive enough to suggest the governor should be answering his own phone. But there's no reason other workers shouldn't be taking calls.

The state's attitude on this isn't limited to what happens under the Capitol dome. In March, citing similar arguments, the Department of Public Welfare refused to provide a man with direct-dial phone numbers and an email address for caseworkers in the Adams County assistance office.

Somewhere along the line, government developed a fear of being swamped if people had a way to contact it directly, said Harrisburg attorney Craig Staudenmaier, who represented Mohn and Raffle. So it set up general office numbers and email addresses to handle the load.

"I understand the concern about flooding their email, but by the same token, one can flood the general phone number and email system as well," Staudenmaier told me. "The vast majority of people are not going to email the governor and lieutenant governor and jam up their in-box."

Some government numbers are readily available, in phone books and online.

The state publishes an extensive employee phone listing online, at http://www.dgs.state.pa.us. But few numbers appear to go directly to employees, as the same phone numbers are listed repeatedly.

The state also publishes email addresses online, at http://www.pa.gov/open, but you must know the employee's name to search. That list seems to be more comprehensive, providing email addresses that are variations of employee names and presumably go directly to them. I know some do, because I've used them.